Author Archive

“As the Czech driver was driving, the main thought of the laptop guy was setting up the launch control in second gear or first gear… Second gear…. First gear… And it went on for hours as I stood there. You decide if that is relevant for winning a rally.” It’s 2005, and with Markko Märtin and Francois Duval now...

Nerves. They can manifest themselves in many ways. For some, it’s trembling, clammy hands. For others, a marked jump in the frequency of bodily functions signifies the onset of an event that the brain isn’t 100 per cent comfortable with. Me? I’m currently experiencing both, and I can barely zip up my overalls thanks to the useless, quivering sticks...

In the first of a multi-part series, David Mullen delves into the history of a famous road, aided by an infamous automobile. You don’t realise it when you round the corner at The Yellow House pub in Dublin’s leafy suburb of Rathfarnham that you’re driving onto the oldest section of one of the most ambitious and dramatic engineering projects...

Imagine you’re perched on a wall on Lagoa Azul, the first stage of the 1986 Rallye De Portugal, as the very latest in Group B technology from Peugeot, Lancia, Audi, Ford and MG shoots past barely a foot from your face. You can feel the noise and smell the fuel. The bit of your brain that made you love...

Despite their combined age being a mere ten years short of 100, there was a very real chance that Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena would win in Catalunya. Bedding himself back into Citroen’s difficult C3 on Friday’s gravel stages, the switch to Tarmac on Saturday saw Seb end the day eight seconds off the lead. At that point, it...

Every evening, without fail, six or seven cars parked up in the town square. Often more. Hell, I think there were six different Peugeot 106 GTIs alone, including one in that ludicrously rare Sundance Yellow colour and another Cherry Red car with 306 GTI-6 Cyclone wheels that looked just perfect. Tonnes of JDM stuff, too. Integras, AE86s, Imprezas, Glanzas,...